Upending American Politics

THEDA SKOCPOL is the Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology at Harvard University and the Director of the Scholars Strategy Network. She is a past president of the American Political Science Association.CAROLINE TERVO is a research coordinator in the Harvard Government Department who focuses on citizen grassroots organizing, state and local party building, and the local effects of federal policy changes.

• Preface and AcknowledgmentsContributorsINTRODUCTION Understanding Current Transformations in American PoliticsPart One. REPUBLICANS OUTFLANKED AND RADICALIZED1. The Elite and Popular Roots of Contemporary Republican Extremism, by Theda Skocpol.2. Dissecting the Conservative Triumph in Wisconsin, by Alexander Hertel-Fernandez.3. Why Republicans Went Hard Right in North Carolina, by Caroline Tervo.4. The Overlooked Organizational Basis of Trump's 2016 Victory, by Michael Zoorob and Theda Skocpol.5. How Trump Flipped Michigan, by Sally Marsh.6. Trump's Trump: Lou Barletta and the Limits of Anti-Immigrant Politics in Pennsylvania, by Elizabeth Thom and Theda Skocpol. Part Two. DEMOCRATS AT BAY AND RESURGENT7. From Obama Victories to a GOP Edge in Florida, by Alexandra Caffrey.8. Middle America Reboots Democracy: The Emergence and Rapid Electoral Turn of the New Grassroots, by Lara Putnam. 9. Saving America Once Again -- from the Tea Party to the anti-Trump Resistance, by Leah Gose, Theda Skocpol, and Vanessa Williamson.10. The Surprising Advance of Gun Control Politics after Parkland, by Sophia Young.11. The Texas-Sized Impact of Beto O'Rourke's 2018 Senate Campaign, by Eliza Oehmler and Michael Zoorob.12. How Grassroots Resistance Networks Boosted Pennsylvania Democrats in 2018, by Maximilian Frank. 13. Citizen Activism and the Democratic Party, by Theda Skocpol, Lara Putnam, and Caroline Tervo.CONCLUSIONAmerica at a Crossroads

Contributors nicely and incisively dissect recent national and state-level partisan shifts and examine the role citizen activism played. This book is strongly encouraged for those seeking to understand how American politics is shifting, and why political lessons taken as a given a decade ago might no longer apply.